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Rheumatologist

There are patients who come in for consultation with inexplicable symptoms of anemia, weakness, fatigue, rash, and so forth. Some symptoms appear simultaneously that they do not make any sense at all and they do not point to just one disease. For this reason that other physicians seek consult with rheumatologists.

Definition

The term rheumatology is derived from two Greek words: "rheuma" (which means flows as a stream) and "logia" (which means the study of). It is an area belonging to the larger field of pediatrics and internal medicine.

Rheumatology is a smaller branch of medical science that is concerned with diagnosing and treating diseases affecting the musculoskeletal system including the bones, muscles, joints, and other related soft tissues. Those who chose to dedicate themselves to in this subspecialty are called rheumatologists.

Rheumatologist is a medical doctor whose specialty is to treat rheumatic illnesses using non-surgical management. They are also concerned with autoimmune disorders and the conditions that affect the connective tissues in the body. One of the diseases that are commonly dealt with by these physicians is arthritis.

Rheumatologists are reminiscent of detectives in a suspense movie since they are the ones who track down the cause of baffling symptoms that appear all together like fever, weight loss, joint or muscle pain, and anorexia. When other attending physicians cannot correlate their symptoms to a disease to which they fit then they seek professional advice from their colleague, which is a rheumatologist.

Types of Patients

Rheumatologists have undergone special training so that they would become highly skilled on diagnosing almost all types of arthritis. Some of the forms of arthritis being managed by these specialists include rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, psoriatic arthritis, and reactive arthritis. Other diseases to which rheumatologists have great interest in are the following: spondylitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Still disease, scleroderma, mixed connective tissue disease, Lyme disease, sarcoidosis, osteomyelitis, Raynaud's disease, and others.

Subspecialty

There are pediatricians who would like to specialize in the field of rheumatology. In this case, they must undergo about two to three years of training in pediatric rheumatology. Then afterwards, they can take a board certification exam on this branch of rheumatology.